Johnson, 46, is a strong supporter of vocational education, proposes that police officers be required to get psychological exams every two years, holds job fairs in the district and wants to prevent gentrification of historic neighborhoods such as Acres Homes.

Bates, 68, was on the Lone Star board for 21 years, seven of those as chairman, and the main building on its Victory Center campus is named for him. He's an attorney who heads Bates and Coleman law firm.

He ran for the state seat in 2016 and is running again because he said people in the community complained that Johnson "is not doing enough for our district."

We have a lot of respect for the work Bates did on the Lone Star board, but he didn't give us a compelling reason to support him over Johnson. To his credit, Bates out-raised Johnson in the January 2018 finance reports. Nevertheless, it takes time to learn how to navigate the Texas Legislature, so we think Johnson did enough in his first term to earn a second one and we endorse him for re-election. No Republican is running, so this primary basically functions as the general election.